"Shooting with both eyes open" is this something I should be doing when looking through the scope ? ... .
Ideally, yes, because you get the full field of view you would without a scope. Your dominant eye will focus on the picture in the scope and your brain will adjust the other eye's version of the scene to fit the whole picture. Unless you are cross-dominant, i.e. if you are shooting a right handed gun and your left eye is dominant, your right eye will be looking through the scope and your brain will want to tune in to the other eye. I'm not sure if you'll be able to make it work, I'm right handed with right eye dominant. You'll have to try it to find out.
It is easier to get used to shooting with both eyes open if you start with lower magnification. When you find you are doing it without thinking about it, increase the magnification gradually.
Am I correct also in understanding that the lower power scopes have a greater field of view ? 1- 5 or 1-8 ? or am I not understanding it correctly?
All else being equal, you'll have a larger field of view (f.o.v.) at lower magnification than at higher. All else being equal, a larger objective lens will give you a larger f.o.v. than a smaller lens will. So if your examples were 1-5x32 and 1-8x32 expect same f.o.v. when they are at the same magnification, both getting smaller as you turn up the magnification. When the latter is at 6x, 7x, 8x the f.o.v. will be even smaller. But if the 1-5x has a larger objective lens (depending on how much larger) it could offer a larger f.o.v than the 1-8x even when using more of its magnification.
3-9x was for a very long time the most common range of magnification for variable power hunting scopes because 3x is very rarely too much, even for close shots, and 9x is rarely not enough because most of us shouldn't take shots at game that is too far away to shoot with 9x. A well made scope in 3-9x still works.
The main drivers of demand for higher magnification and larger lenses is that if you don't know what you are doing you tend to assume that bigger numbers mean more capability and more must be better. But more magnification than you need and bigger lenses have their downsides, one of which is cost (even if it doesn't cost more to make, it tends to cost more to buy.) Don't let that divert too much of your budget away from optical quality (glass and the lens coatings) or from mechanical quality (precision parts that work consistently to give reliable adjustments and that are robust in field conditions.)
A larger objective lens will admit more light, all else being equal, but your eye can only handle so much. Divide your objective lens size by the magnification you are using to discover a figure called exit pupil. E.g. a 4x28mm scope gives an exit pupil of 7 and that's the typical maximum size a young adult human's eye can make use of. As we age, our eyes can't use even that much, at middle age 5 is a good number. Anything more is wasted, so quality of glass and lens coatings become more important to getting a brighter image from the maximum useful size of exit pupil.
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